University standards have been in the news quite a bit recently, largely as a result of so-called ‘grade inflation’. The proportion of students getting good degrees has been going up and some commentators have been accusing universities of changing their standards. Universities are supposed all to have the same standards, of course, with the external examiner system being a key component of maintaining that position. But is that really the case. More...

University development has tended to happen in waves.  The so-called ‘post-92’ universities were created by the transformation of the polytechnics by the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. A similar government decision in 1963, following the recommendations of the Robbins Report, converted the ten Colleges of Advanced Technology into universities.  Early in the nineteenth century, however, there was an even smaller but more important and more interesting wave of new institutions. More...

For those who do not know, HEPI is the UK’s only independent think tank and we have done a lot of work with the bodies that have come together as Advance HE and, indeed, we are already working with Advance HE – for example, on our joint Student Academic Experience Survey, which we launched last month. More...

Last month, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) published The Wisdom of Students: Monitoring Quality through Student Reviews. Here are two extracts from the Executive Summary. More...

It will come as no surprise that the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) First-year Student Career Readiness Survey 2017/18 found that socio-economic background continues to be a major influence on students’ career readiness and confidence when they arrive at university. More...

For the past 18 months, I have been delighted to serve as HEPI’s first Director of Policy and Advocacy – a role which has cemented my deep-seated interest in higher education policy and instilled in me a genuine desire to contribute to the sustained success of the UK higher education sector. More...

The impact of mental health issues on people and their futures can be illustrated in the story of one student, a keen violinist, whose depression led her to stop playing the instrument, instead watching hours of the US reality TV show Dance Moms. More...

Work-related, vocational, technical education has become one of the key policy debates in recent years. The Augar Review is rightly making this, particularly at sub-degree level, a core part of its work. Those working with modern universities have always had a focus on this area – not least with the innovation in the 2000s of Foundation degrees – so attention to this area is welcome. More...